Annabeth's PoV of Battle of The Labyrinth
by WholuvsPJO
Summary: Annabeth has to have a say in what happened in the battle of the labyrinth so here it is.
1. I meet Percy's girlfriend

**Hi guys this is my first fic so try not to be too harsh. : D ;D**

I'd known Percy for years now. I'll admit it, I like Percy and I've been dropping hints forever. Of course he doesn't exactly get it through his seaweed filled brain and if it did he'd ignore it. But that wasn't going to stop me from trying.

I'm way more nervous than I should be today. Percy and I were going to the movies as friends, of course at least that's what I've been telling my cabin. That's how it really is too, but maybe that might change today. Or I'll change it.

The cab pulled over at Goode High School this huge brick building with an elaborate stone arch over the door and-_what the- _Percy came shooting out of the alley before me and I reached over to tug him back before he ruins one of those sweet BMWs. " Hey, you're out early!" I laughed. Maybe it's too positive in there. " Watch where you're going, Seaweed Brain."

Suddenly, a mortal came running out the way Percy screaming, " Percy wait up!" My smile and good mood fades as I looked from the mortal girl to Percy's school, which was lit with a fire, smoke billowing from the tops. How could I have missed that? More importantly, how could Percy manage to get expelled before school even started? Oh yeah he's Percy.

I frowned then turned from the burning building, back to Percy who was looking uncomfortable. Good. " What did you do this time? And who is this?" I demand. The pretty mortal wasn't helping my mood either.

" Oh, Rachel-Annabeth Annabeth-Rachel. Um, she's a friend. I guess." Sure she is Percy. I looked at Rachel, a redheaded teen about my age with a sprinkle of freckles and art themed clothes. I might have liked her if she didn't like Percy. And she obviously did.

" Hi." Rachel says swiftly then she rounded to Percy. " You are in _so_ much trouble." No duh. " And you still owe me an explanation!" For what? Your buddy blows up the school, big deal.

I could hear police sirens approaching fast.

" Percy." I said, keeping my chilly composture. " We should go." Before I skewer you're girlfriend.

" I want to know more about half-bloods," Rachel insisted. " And monsters. And all this stuff about the gods." I was so mad I barely noticed when she broke out a sharpie and scrawled her number on his arm. Quite the ladies man, aren't you Percy? " You're going to call me and explain, okay? You owe me that. Now get going."

" But-" Percy protested.

" I'll make up some story," Rachel promised. " I'll tell them it wasn't your fault. Just go!"

She sprinted back toward her burning school, leaving Percy and me on in the street.

I stared at Percy, and when he caught me looking I ran away.

" Hey!" He called, coming after me. " There were these two _empousia,_" He tried again. " They were cheerleaders,"-Duh-" See, and they said camp was going to burn, and-"

" You told a mortal girl about half-bloods?" I had to add _girl_.

" She can see through the Mist. She saw the monsters before I did."

" So you told her the truth."

" You've met her _before_?" Behind my curtain of hair, my ears turned red. How obvious had that been? Then again, I shouldn't over estimate Percy's brainpower.

" Um, last winter. But seriously, I barely know her." Or not. I might as well dig deeper.

" She's kind of cute." Nice Annabeth.

" I-I never thought about it."

That wasn't about to convince me. I kept walking towards York Avenue with my flaring temper.

Obviously, Percy felt that we had left the conversation on shaky grounds because he said, " I'll deal with the school." No Paul will. " Honest it'll be fine."

Apparently he's been busy with another life. I felt a bit betrayed. " I guess our afternoon is off. We should get you out of here, now that the police will be looking for you." I kept my voice even.

Percy glanced back at Goode High School with a nervous expression, as if the _empousia _were still watching us.

" Your right," He said sounding defeated. My heart leapt. " We have to get to Camp Half-Blood. _Now._


	2. The Cab Interogation

**Ok well hi! SOOO much homework. My head will explode. There's math everywhere! Anyways. . . **

I held my temper for the whole taxi ride.

Percy kept trying to start conversations the whole way to Camp Half-Blood, but he wasn't making much progress with me. He should know better than that. All I let slip was that monsters had come swarming at me throughout the summer like Aphrodite kids around mascara (No surprise there ), that I'd come back twice since Christmas, but I didn't elaborate which seemed to tick him off. Good. The reason was because Clarisse, a daughter of Ares and Percy's enemy since his first day at camp, had found Chris Rodriguez while exploring the labyrinth, this huge maze created by Daedalus, a son of Athena who's my mom too, the ultimate architect.

I also mentioned how I hadn't learned anything about where Nico Di Angelo was (long, scary, life threatening story).

" Any word on Luke?" Percy asked.

I gripped the seat and shook my head forlornly. If Percy was trying to get on my good side, this wasn't the way to do it. Luke had been like a big brother to me and for a while something more . . . Before Percy, that is. Now he was sailing on a monster infested cruise ship set out to destroy the world with his mulch mix Lord Kronos, but Luke was still unreasonably important to me and I know I can change his mind. There had to be some good left. Last year, we'd had a fight on top of Mount Tamalpais which eneded up with Luke falling down a fifty feet drop. Some how he survived.

Since we were on the topic I added, " Mount Tam is still overrun with monsters," No surprise there. " I didn't dare go close, but I don't think Luke is up there. I think I would know if he was." Percy didn't look very happy about this news. He changed the subject.

"What about Grover?" He asked.

"He's at camp," I hedged. " We'll see him today."

"Did he have any luck" I mean, with the search for Pan?"

My hands flew up to my necklace out of habit when I'm worried.

"You'll see." Was all I said.

Percy stopped trying to talk me as we passed through Brooklyn. When he asked to call his mom with my cellphone, I just shifted my head slightly as a yes. If he asked to call anyone else,( namely Rachel) I'd gut him. Besides, using a cellphone if your a demigod is insanely dangerous. You might as well walk into our woods at Camp Half-Blood at night with a torch and Percy who smells like sushi to them. It sends up a flare to monsters letting them know theres a snack near by. I know all the myths say the monster come to "challenge" us but really, there just hungry.

After the call, an awkward silence fell over us. Soon we were out of the expressway and out into the countryside of northern Long Island.

As the taxi exited on Route 25A, I started getting anxious. How could I explain everything to Seaweed Brain? If anybody could convince Grover, it was Percy but I wasn't really in a good mood with him at the moment. I needed breathing room.

I told the driver to pull over at Farm Road 3.141, the base of Half-Blood Hill.

As expected, the driver frowned and said, " There ain't nothing here, miss. You sure you want out?"

" Yes please." I replied testily, then handed him a roll of cash to shut him up.

Percy and I hiked up the hill. Peleus, our young guardian dragon, was curled up around the pine tree like always. As we a approached, he raised his shiney head and I scratched under his chin. Stream went shooting up through his nostrils and he went cross-eyed.

"Hey Peleus." I greeted cheerfully. " Keeping everything safe?"

Percy raised his eyebrows at Peleus. I couldn't blame him. The dragon had grown more that double his original length since the last time Percy saw him. On the pine's branches, the golden fleece danced in the light protecting our camp from invasion.

Below us the campers are going on with the day. Riding flying horses, making there own dangerously leathel weapons, and all that fun stuff. A couple of campers are fighting an orange sea serpent in the lake and the Big House stands proudly in the strawberry fields. I decide to just drop it on Percy for now.

"I need to talk to Clarisse."

Percy looked at me like I had gone insane. I wasn't really expecting anything less. " What for?" He replied in an incredulous voice. I b He'll it back a bubble of hysteria at his face. Really, I couldn't blame him. They'd met on Percy's first day and Clarisse had tried to dunk Percy's head in the toilit. It made matters worse when Percy doused her in toilet water for trying. Now they had this I Kill You basis thing that Clarisse seems to reinforce every time she takes a dive at Percy. Its entertainment at its best.

" We've been working on something." I reply. " I'll see you later."

" Working on what?"

Not bothering on answering, I continued with a glance at the forest where in no time Grover would get his hearing. " I'll tell Chiron you're here," Definitely. " He'll want to talk to you before the hearing."

"What hearing?"

But I was already gone.


	3. Grover Gets A Deadline

I jogged down to the archery field and didn't look back once. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy walking through camp no doubt going to the swords arena. Good, now I know where to send Chiron. All I needed to do know was find him. It wasn't hard, with him being half horse he towered over the archers.

"Chiron!" I shouted.

Chiron whipped around, swatting a Apollo guy in the process.

He around, swatting a Apollo guy in the process.

He understood immediately. "Campers, I think you can all handle yourselves for now, ok?" He called briskly.

I watched an Apollo camper target an Ares camper and highly doubted they could.

As Chiron galloped down the path, toward the arena, I moved next to Clarisse and hissed, "Percy's here." She let her arrow fly then turned around.

"Isn't Grover's hearing starting soon? You can tell him later. I need to check on. . . You know."

Oh yeah. Chris Rodigeuz, the former Hermes demigod that went mad in the Labyrinth, was the one that Clarisse had found. A couple of years ago, Percy, Tyson, and I had been aboard the Princess Andromeda, the headquarters for the Titans, where we'd heard Chris and some other demigod talking about the war. Now he was in the basement of the Big House where Clarisse visited him everyday. I had never noticed it before, but Clarisse had known Chris a lot more than I'd been aware of.

Clarisse threw a quick glance at the Big House, to its surroundings, then back to me. I nodded slowly and without another glance, she sped off. I hurried into the forest.

In front of me, the trees starting bending like an arch until I reached the clearing where the hearing had just started. Juniper, Grover's girlfriend, stood in the ring of bystanders, sniffling as Grover started his story, from when they'd felt the nature magic of Pan in the small town of Cloud Croft and the gift of the wild boar, to hearing Pan's voice on Olympus. Even early on in the hearing, it was obvious the Cloven Elders didn't believe him. Especially Silenus, who seemed even fatter than the other two satyrs, if that was possible.

From where I stood on Juniper's right, I could hear Clarisse slide in on Juniper's left. She gave me a knowing look then made a disgusted face at the Elders. I sighed. Just then, Chiron galloped into the meadow with Percy on his back. After sliding off, Percy looked from me, to Clarisse, to Juniper, then back so me for an explaination. Seaweed Brain.

I mouthed _Grover's girlfriend _to him. Percy raised his eyebrows. I could tell he didn't believe me at first. It was understandable. Grover with a girlfriend? That's now what you expect from your goat boy. I saw Percy studying Juniper with wide sea green eyes. Now he gets it.

Finally the fat guy from before, Silenus, couldn't take it any more. "Master Underwood!" He shouted, cutting Grover off. "Do you seriously expect us to believe this?"

Grover turned red.

"B-but Silenus," He tried. "It's the truth!"

Silenus turned to the other elders and muttered something no doubt something along the lines of "_Can you believe him?"_ Chiron cantered up to join the council as an honorary member. Over by the clearing entrance, Percy stared at the members with cocked eyebrows. I didn't even try to decode his looks anymore. Seaweed Brains will be Seaweed Brains.

Silenus flattened his yellow polo over his round belly and shifted in the rosebush throne. Spider webs were hanging off his horns. I stifled a gag. " Master Underwood, for six months-_six months_-we have been hearing these scandalous claims that you heard the wild god speak." I wished I could point out that they'd been looking for Pan for 2000 years so six months wasn't much of a difference, but I knew better than to challenge the elders. Maybe Percy would do it instead because, to him, there just goats and I had a feeling he would be happy to skewer these idiots. No such luck.

"But I did!" Grover protested.

"Impudence!" Maron, the satyr on the left cried.

"Now, Maron," Chiron said, "Patience."

"Patience, indeed!" Maron snapped back. "I've had it up to my horns with this nonsense. As if the wild god would speak to him . . . to _him_."

Next to me Juniper tensed they tried to charge down the old satyr. Clarisse and I held her back. "Wrong fight, girlie," Clarisse muttered. "Wait."

Clarisse had changed a lot since she'd found Chris and this whole Labyrinth thing started. Now, instead of attacking me straight off because she associated me with Percy, she even had enough common sense to stop a fight. Percy must've noticed because he looked extremely surprise and extremely cute.

"For six months," Silenus continued, "we have indulged you, Master Underwood. We let you travel. We allowed you to keep you're searcher's license. We waited for you to bring us proof of your preposterous claim. And what have you found in six months of travel?" Nothing, you idiots, just like all the other stinking satyrs.

"I just need more time," And a trip to the labyrinth.

"Nothing!" Leneus chimed in delighted to have a chance to run his mouth at Grover. " You have found nothing."

"But, Leneus-"

Silenus raised his hand. Chiron leaned in and said something to the elders. They started arguing with each other then Chiron said something else and Silenus sighed in defeat He nodded sullenly.

"Master Underwood." He announced, "we will give you one more chance."

Grover whole aspect changed. "Thank you!"

"One more week." Silenus concluded.

"What? But, sir! That's impossible!"

"One more week, Master Underwood. Then, if you cannot prove your claims, it will be time for you to pursue another career. Something to suit your dramatic talents. Puppet theater, perhaps. Or tap dancing." Now they were just messing with him.

"But, sir, I-I can't lose my searcher's license. My whole life-"

"This meeting of the council is adjourned," Silenus cut in. "And now let us enjoy our noonday feast!"

I snorted in disgust. Men and food. Satyrs and food. Same concept.

As all the satyrs charged at the food, Grover walked over dejectedly.

"Hi, Percy," Grover said, not even offering to shake his hand, "That went well, huh?"

"Those old goats!" Juniper cried. "Oh, Grover, they don't know how hard you've tried!"

"There is another option." Clarisse said darkly. The labyrinth could be where Pan was hidden. It would be insanely dangerous.

Apparently, Juniper thought so too, because she said, "No. No." While shaking her head, "Grover, I won't let you."

Grover aged a few years. "I-I'll have to think about it. But we don't even know where to look."

"What are you talking about?" asked Percy right as the conch horn sounded in the distance. Suddenly, I was aware of how little Percy knew. Repressing the urge to drag him over and tell him right then, I pursed my lips and said, "I'll fill you in later, Percy. We'd better get back to our cabins. Inspection is starting." And your lucky enough Tyson is here.

**Ok I'm really sorry but I have to go this family vacation to... a So I won't be able to update for like 2 weeks? About that **


	4. The Start

**Ok first of all I'm feeling kind of hypocritic cuz I said 2 weeks but in my defence, I lost the book . I had to get another one plus school started so now everything's all busy. So yeah. X=Mas in one week!**

When I walked into my cabin, the only messy bunk was mine since nobody dared to touch my stuff, which was funny since I'm not even the oldest here. Malcolm says that a daughter of Athena at any age is frightening.

Anyways, my bunk stood out against the spotless walls in a weird way so I hurried through my stuff, finishing right before Silena came in. She barely gave the cabin a glance, its always tidy, in second place only to her cabin because its neat _and _pretty. Ugh.

Afterwards, I went down to the big house to talk to Chiron.

"The Labyrinth is the only possibility." I said earnestly but I knew this was a long process, Chiron never wanted to risk campers on a quest, but this one was important and as much as I wanted Grover to find Pan, this quest had a lot more to it. I just had to prove that first.

Chiron looked down at me thoughtfully, worry lines making his face look as old as he really was.

"We'll just have to wait and see." He started slowly, "Maybe then we'll get some clues, but until then it's not worth it." And I knew what he meant, not worth lost lives especially since he knew who my first choice would be, who would probably go anyways.

"But what about Chris Rodriguez, Chiron? He was one of… Luke's, from the Labyrinth." Yes, he was one of Luke's half-bloods, there wasn't any point in denying it any further.

"Patience." Chiron said with finality. "We'll just have to wait and see."

Sighing, I turned and flew out of the Big House to sit by the lake where I could sit and think in peace.

I knew Chiron was right, but how could we just 'wait and see'? What if something happened and they attacked camp before we could prepare ourselves? And even if we did get a heads up, our numbers are so small we'd only be able to slow them down.

Luckily, I was distracted soon enough from my morbid thoughts by Percy and Tyson coming to hang out. I greeted Tyson enthusiasticly and I was really glad to see him but my mind was wandering again after a few conversations as I stared out into the woods where Grover had his disasterous trial. Another reason to go into the labyrinth. I needed to tell Percy about the Labyrinth soon if not now. I wasn't sure how that would help anything but telling him seemed like a comfort. Like I wasn't all alone in all of this.

"What's this 'other way'" Percy inquired suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. "The thing Clarisse mentioned?"

This was a perfect way to start but I wasn't sure how. I deliberated for a second, picking up a smooth pebble and skipping it across the lake.

"Something Clarisse scouted out. I helped her a little this spring. But it would be dangerous. Especially for Grover." This answer seemed a bit to evasive, but oh well, let him figure it out until dinner.

"Goat boy scares me." Tyson murmured and that's how I knew I was officially _not _going to be in this conversation.

Percy on the other hand start at Tyson like he'd gone mad the asked, "Why would you be scared of Grover?"

Oh I so did _not _want to know.

"Hooves and horns," Tyson replied nervously. "And goat fur makes my nose itchy."

Awkward.


	5. The Titans' Pet

Afterwards, Percy and Tyson left to go to the swords arena. I wondered for a second if Quintus was a clue that Chiron was looking out for but what would he have to do with the Labyrinth? Besides, I couldn't go around accusing Quintus as a spy or something, there just weren't enough facts-that I knew of anyways.

I got up and headed off to my cabin to read about anything that could help me –us–with… everything. Lined on the shelf's, somewhere had to be an answer, but the Labyrinth was magical, no facts on pages could navigate it. That didn't mean I wasn't going to try, what else could I do?

I looked out the window a bazzilion books later and it was almost dark outside. By this time I was almost certain there was nothing to be found just basic, obvious things. Plus, most of the references just say to never ever go in because certain death, or something awaits. Comforting.

As I led the Athena cabin down to the pavilion, I caught sight of Percy and Tyson staring at the sealed crack in the ground few people cared about. I always stepped over it and so did Percy. Grover avoided all together. I looked over again to see Tyson nodding his head in agreement. Percy had probably just told him about what had happened, when Nico Di Angelo had made some skeleton warriors set on killing Percy fall straight through the ground. Into the Underworld where Nico's father ruled.

Afterward he'd disappeared into the woods and nobody had seen him since. That gave me a weird, uneasy feeling like we would be united with dear little Nico soon enough. I didn't need to ruin their dinner all together now that Percy had decided to started it on such a bad note.

Tomorrow then.

Screaming. Shouts. Calls for weapons.

What's going on?

For a second my mind is mush, my eyes are foggy and I want to _sleep._ But then I go into autopilot and rouse the rest of the Athena campers that aren't awake, staring at something just beyond our camp border. I race over and get a up close with my first Drakon. Think vicious, scary _dragon_ but bigger and more dangerous. The Athena campers and I rush out of the cabin because there is no order now, and I throw myself into the crowd of by standing campers who are watching Lee Fletcher and his siblings shoot arrows at the thing.

I finally got a really good look at the monster and wish I hadn't. It was thirty feet long, bright, sickly green with eyes that paralyzed you with fear like Medusa except theres no stone involved, but its probably just as bad.

I looked around for friends and spot Grover and Juniper at the edge of the woods, Malcolm and the rest of my siblings a little ways to the right since I had dashed off to the side a bit. There's no Tyson though , but I'm not surprised, its like he's been sedated every time he sleeps. No Percy either, so he's either had a very long day or has inherited some of the genetics that Tyson got most of. Probably both.

Around five, the excitement starts to wear off so I crash as soon as I can. My dreams were foggy even in sleep, from Aethiopean Drakons to the Labyrinth, dark and sinister, to all my problems, impossible to decipher, and then to Percy who seems to be saying,_ well Wisegirl? What's the plan?_

Well Annabeth, what is the plan? I roll over on my bed and walk down to breakfast. During morning announcements, Lee is up, warning us about the Drakon.

"Its still out there," He says uneasily. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes…" He stopped, shuddering and I couldn't blame him.

I looked over at Percy to see how he was doing with the news and saw that he looked just as tired as everybody else was. But _he_ hadn't been woken up at three because of some crazy, spying, evil, creepy (I have a right to be grumpy) Drakon, Maybe the dreams had come, which most likely they did.

"You did well, Lee." Chiron patted him consolingly, then turned to address the rest of us. "Everybody stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from his spot at the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

_What? _I sat there staring at Quintus for a moment while everybody broke into murmurs. Now the camp definitely wasn't gonna stay calm. And how did he know so much? His statement had been vague, and I was pretty sure it wasn't a guess. He sounded really sure. Well that wasn't good.

It did make sense though. Kronos was planning to attack camp first, eliminating the gods' tools–us therefore seriously crippling them. After we were done with they would march onto Olympus.

And their army was still growing. Monsters were joining up with the Titan side because they were probably going to win. Our numbers were seriously down too. When I had started here, it had been full of campers. Now we were too small to make up a decent army.

Some had just died because of monsters. Some had joined Kronos. And some had just vanished, without a trace.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, his eyes brightening. "We'll see how you do with that tonight. "

"Yes . . ." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods!"

We raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.

I went to the bronze braziers right after Percy and Tyson did and scraped some of my food into the fire.

"Athena." I said. After a moment I whispered. "Please help me with the Labyrinth problem and the plan Kronos is making." There were so many things to worry about, but I headed back to my table.

Soon everybody started eating and talking and the tense atmosphere relinquished a bit from the air. I could see Chiron bringing Grover over to the Poseidon and a couple moments later, Tyson got up awkwardly and rushed out of breakfast. Good, Chiron probably wanted Percy to convince Grover to go into the maze so this was my chance to tell him. But how? There was so much to explain . . .

"Annabeth?" I started. It was Malcolm, looking at me with concern and I realized I hadn't touched my breakfast, had just been staring into space. Irritation fluttered through me, why did this always happen to me?

"Uh yeah?" I replied distractedly, zoning in on the real world.

"Oh, well, you haven't eaten anything yet." Malcolm replied awkwardly.

Sighing, I got up from the table and turned toward Percy's table.

"I think I have something to do, actually."

People stared as I made my way and slid right next to Percy on the bench. I arrived just in time to hear Percy ask, "What's he talking about?"

"I'll tell you what its about," I said, leaning in. "The Labyrinth."

People were really starting to stare now. They looked at each other and whispered things, glancing at our table. Ok, so maybe I was breaking a pretty big rule, we aren't supposed to sit at other tables, but so what? The only person watching us was Quintus and he didn't seem to care. Sorta.

"Your not supposed to be here." Percy said.

"We need to talk," I insisted. Plus, I already walked over here, might as well finish what I came here for.

"But the rules . . . "

Argh. Since when did you care about rules?

"Look," I continued. "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

Percy shifted and stopped looking at the campers that were staring. I hoped he knew this story.

"You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," I said.

"So . . . it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," He continued. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

There goes his brilliance streak. I rolled my eyes and corrected him before him head got any bigger.

"Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is _huge._ It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

Percy seemed to be thinking about something as he answered.

"So is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No." I frowned, why would he ask that? "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down _into _the underworld. I'm not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world. Kind of like a second skin. It's been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth."

You can get anywhere . . . anywhere? Even camp? But we would have found an entrance . . .

"If you don't get lost." Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

Well there's that too. But there's still a way there has to be.

"Grover, there has to be a way," I countered for what felt like the millionth time.

"Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover cried. "And the other guy–"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die." I had a feeling that wasn't any better.

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip trembled, "That makes me feel so much better."

"Whoa," Percy intercepted. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy?"

I glanced at the Ares table, but luckily Clarisse hadn't heard though I was sure she knew what we were talking about. She just stared down at her plate though.

"Last year," I began quietly, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," He said. "It was secret."

I nodded. And felt a bit relieved that the tension from earlier was lifting a bit. I wondered if Percy noticed how close we were sitting on the bench even though we really didn't need to be. _Hint. Hint._

"It was a secret," I agreed. "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from the Hermes Cabin?" Percy asked.

Chris Rodriguez was a camper here that had gone over to the titans' side. We'd overheard him and Luke talking on the _Princess Andromeda _a boat infested with demons and the headquarters for the Titans.

"Yeah," I said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"String." Percy said.

"He'd been driven completely insane." I explained. "Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

Percy shivered slightly.

"Okay," He asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," I answered. "That's Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because . . . well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved–" Was amazing. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?" Percy said.

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," I argued. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy stated. "Why? What's he planning?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhatten, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but . . . it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

Percy stared at me. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shivered next to Percy. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in _that _place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"But," I said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work _for _you–"

"It could lead you to the wild god." Percy finished.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach like he was going to puke. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"Grover, it may be your last chance," I reminded him. "The council it serious. _One week _or you learn to tap dance!"

At the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. I had really been sitting at Percy's table for way too long.

"We'll talk later." I said and squeezed his arm forcefully. "Convince him, will you?"

Then I walked away, ignoring all the people staring as I made my way to the table.


End file.
